The Furies of Paradise
By Shadow
Chapter 5
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"Please sit down Ms. Rockbell," Darcia said, sitting at the end of the table in an elegant chair fit for a king.
Winry nervously obeyed, and sat opposite him. A young woman with black hair put up in two buns came to the table with tea and some kind of pastry. The smells were intoxicating, but Winry declined the offer, being too nervous to really eat anything.
"So Ms. Rockbell," the Fuhrer said suddenly, breaking Winry's thoughts. "It seems you have stumbled across…The Lunar Tome, am I right?"
Winry clenched her fists around the hem of her skirt, "Fuhrer, I don't mean to be impolite, but can you cut to the chase? What is it you want with Paradise?"
"Smart girl," he said, pouring himself a cup of tea. He offered her some silently, but Winry just shook her head. "It has been the dream of my family for generations to open the gates to Paradise….however, I want to open the gate for a far different reason. Perhaps it is one you will understand, Winry Rockbell…."
His servant came around, and whispered something in his ear before disappearing through the door. Darcia watched where she exited for a few moments before turning his attention back to Winry, "My lover Hamona," he started. "It was our dream to go to paradise together."
Winry tensed. An image of her and Ed playing together as little kids back home came to her mind for some reason.
"However, I did not realize…how much she really wanted it. How much she believed she would get there one day. She wanted to get to paradise so badly, that her soul left her body, and went through the gates to get there. So you see, Winry Rockbell, I am trying to open the gates for the one thing man has always gone crazy over…."
Winry was hearing every word, but she couldn't see Darcia in front of her. It was just images of Edward, becoming obsessed in his alchemy, and crossing the gate into the other world. It was almost a parallel story. Almost.
"I want it for love."
Winry stood up suddenly and muttered a barely audible, "Excuse me."
With that Winry left the room, and ran down the hall and into the bathroom. She desperately tried to stop tears from coming down her face, but was failing miserably.
"Ed," she wailed. "Are you also lost to your obsession so much that you'll never come back?"
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Luna ran after Ed and Al through an alleyway. The gunshots started to become louder, and more frequent. Screams of terrified humans echoed into the night. Luna looked over her shoulder, worried.
"Luna, you okay?" Al asked as they crept down the almost pitch black alleyway.
Luna nodded, "I'm worried about Zev," she replied truthfully. "I don't have a good feeling about this."
"Oh, now you don't have a good feeling," Edward shot back sarcastically. "I knew we shouldn't have come here from the beginning!"
"Well, excuse me," Luna retorted, "You guys are the ones that wanted to come along with me to learn about this book."
Ed let out something akin to a growl, which Luna imitated with striking accuracy (obviously, since she was a wolf), but they were cut short as they heard another scream of agony.
"They're getting closer," Luna said in a hushed voice.
"Does this place have an exit?" Ed asked, now serious.
"You guys go on," Luna replied, rather than answering the question. "I'm going back for Zev. This is ridiculous. He's going to get killed."
With that, Luna turned around, and started walking back towards the house, but was abruptly stopped by someone gripping her arm.
"Luna, you're going to get killed."
Luna whipped around, furious, and came face to face with Alphonse. She was about to retort with something nasty, but stopped short when she realized he was actually concerned for her well being. She relaxed, and let out an uncharacteristic smile. "I'll be fine."
With that, she squeezed out of his grip, and took off at a speed that no human could match.
Luna followed the sounds of gunshots until she came back to the house. She could hear the screaming of people inside the building, but when she found the back door, it was sealed closed.
"Damn," Luna swore. With that, she ran around to the front of the building. A Nazi officer stood at the front of the house where the door was open, pointing his gun at someone.
"Please don't shoot," the woman shouted. "Don't shoot my son!"
The soldier shouted something in German, and another soldier came to the woman, and slapped her in the face. The woman shrieked. The first Nazi shouted another order in German, and the second soldier responded by shooting the woman on the side of her head. She fell over in a heap of blood.
The little boy screamed in horror.
"Momma!" he shouted. Immediately, Luna was hit with a wave of sympathy. An image of her mother lying dead after being shot by a hunter was thick in her mind.
"Mother!" a young Luna cried, wailing over her mother's body. "Don't be dead. Please!"
"Please don't die mother!" the kid cried, breaking Luna out of her thoughts. She winced. It was similar. Too similar….
The Nazi shouted at the kid in German, and hit him over the head with the barrel of his gun. The boy was quiet after that, sniveling on the ground.
Luna let out a feral sound, a snarl. She was not about to stand by idly and watch the kid get shot. She readied herself to leap forward, and kill the Nazi, but before she could react, Zev came flying out of the second floor window, in wolf form. He landed down on the Nazi's shoulders, biting into his neck, and toppled over, the now dead Nazi underneath him. He snarled at the surprised soldiers, "Get back!" he cried.
"Zev!" the kid shouted. "Zev you're hurt!"
And then Luna noticed it. Zev was covered in blood.
"Zev!" Luna shouted, not caring about the element of surprise anymore. She rushed forward, into the line of fire. The second Nazi let out a surprised cry, but it was cut short, for Luna bit down onto his neck in the blink of an eye, barely shifting from human to wolf and back again.
Unbeknownst to Luna, a third soldier took aim at her from a ways away.
"Luna?" Zev exclaimed surprised. "Where are Ed and Al?"
"I told them to leave without me. Come on, we have to get you out of here."
BLAM!
The gunshot seemed to echo forever in Luna's ears. She was careless. She had failed. She would never make it to paradise.
But for some reason, death was oddly painless.
"ZEV!" the little kid shrieked, causing Luna to snap her eyes open.
Zev lay in a heap next to Luna. He had taken a bullet to the chest.
"No!" Luna wailed. "Zev!"
He coughed up a generous helping of internal blood and looked up at Luna. It was a horrifying sight. The light was struggling to stay in his eyes.
Luna snarled, quickly shifting from human to wolf form and turning around. The Nazi soldier still had the barrel of his gun pointed at Luna, but his eyes were filled with fear, and rightfully so.
"Bastard," Luna snarled, taking a step forward.
"Stay back!" the soldier demanded. But Luna wasn't about to listen to the demands of a human, nor would she leave this one alive after what he did to Zev.
"I'll kill you," she muttered softly. "I'll kill you!"
With that she leapt forward, moving at a speed no human could comprehend. She ruthlessly bit down into the Nazi's neck, letting his blood soak her muzzle and fur. With a effortless flick of her head, Luna threw the dead man aside, watching his body crash to the floor.
For a few moments she stood there, panting, but quickly turned her attention back to Zev.
"Don't die," she thought as she raced back over to him. "Don't you dare die."
"Luna," he grumbled. "Thank you…for protecting…him. He is young, and has the rest of his life to live thanks to you. I want you to take care of him for me. Get him out of this damned Ghetto. Please, as my dying wish."
Luna shook her head. "You're not going to die," she said, bending over him. "You will be fine and take him out of here yourself."
Zev let out a weak laugh. "Youthful optimism is a gift. I am an old wolf Luna. I'm not going to recover from this bullet wound."
"No!" Luna distressed. "Please! Don't go!"
"Lets meet up again in paradise."
"Zev!" Luna howled, but in vain. The old wolf was gone from the world, never to run free again.
"Luna!" a voice called from the distance, but was promptly ignored as Luna stayed crouched at Zev's side, switching from wolf to human on pure instinct.
"Luna?" the voice called again. This time, Luna recognized it to be Alphonse. "What happened?"
"What is that animal?" Edward asked suspiciously.
"It's Zev," Luna muttered. "He's a wolf."
Alphonse gasped, and Edward narrowed his eyes at the two canines.
"Lets get out of here," Luna said, wiping the tears from her eyes and standing up. She would not appear weak in front of the Elric brothers. It would be unacceptable in her eyes.
Luna turned back around, staring into the darkness at the figure of the young boy. "Well you heard him," she said sternly. "I'm taking you out of here."
The boy crept forward, his shaggy hair blocking his eyes. His body was beyond thin, and you could see every one of his ribs, not to mention his clothes were tattered and small on him. The poor kid must have been living in hell.
Luna gave him a sympathetic look. "What's your name?"
"Yoshua," he said weakly. "But I prefer Joshua."
"Alright," Luna replied, gesturing for him to follow. "Let's move."
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Joshua leapt down the wall to freedom. He was finally rid of the Ghetto. Part of him was overflowing with happiness, but the other part of him was drowned in sorrow. Tonight his entire family had died, and Zev as well.
And this Luna…. She was a wolf.
It was strange to him. He knew wolves were hard to come by, but it was especially weird that he seemed to be a beacon for them.
"Luna?" he spoke up. "Where are we going?"
"We're going to Paradise," she said in a determined voice.
"I thought you said you didn't believe the stories?" Alphonse said.
"I don't care," she said, not turning to look Al in the face. "I'm going to go there, and meet up with Zev. And my father."
"Your father?" Al asked. "What happened to him?"
"He got pulled through the gate."
Ed and Al exchanged glances, and then stared back at Luna. Something about her was different now. She was serious now, and she seemed like she wasn't going to hold back. Suddenly, Ed felt a whole lot better. The more determined they all were, the faster he could get home.
"Lets rest here," Luna said suddenly, breaking the silence between the group. "We'll need our strength for tomorrow, and now we're far enough away from civilization to stay hidden.
"Okay," Joshua said quietly. "I'll go grab some firewood."
"Alphonse, go with him," Edward said. "We'll need more than one person collecting wood."
"Okay brother," Al replied, chasing after Joshua at a run.
Luna and Ed watched them dissapear into the forest, and then turned to both look at each other.
"So, what is it really?" Luna asked, crossing her arms.
"I'm onto you," Ed replied, narrowing his eyes. "I know you're not taking us with you for our benefit. I know you hate all humans, and I know you yourself are most definitely not a human."
"And how did you figure that out?" Luna asked, raising her eyebrows.
"I saw you shift forms," Ed replied. "Last night when you came back from your little outing."
Luna's eyes widened. He had seen her coming back from her pack?
"You didn't see where I went right?" Luna asked, fear rising in her voice. As much as she hated her former pack, Luna would rather not have any human know about the territory they lived on. It was a threat.
"No, I just saw you before you entered the camp."
Luna snarled at Edward. "Don't tell a soul."
"I won't if you will tell us exactly how much you know about that book."
Luna snarled again. "You won't like everything you hear."
"I think I can handle it."
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A/N: Wow, talk about waiting forever for an update. Don't kill me! XD.
And please, PLEASE review!